ITV plc

ITV plc is a British media company which operates the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. It owns a dominant stake in ITV1, which has vied with the British Broadcasting Corporation's BBC1 for the status of the UK's most watched channel since the 1950s. ITV plc was formed by the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada plc and began trading on 2 February 2004. This was the latest stage in a long process of mergers between the original ITV regional franchises.

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ITV plc currently owns the following ITV franchises in the UK:

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Former Granada-owned franchises:

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• Anglia Television: East of England franchise
• Border Television: English - Scottish border and Isle of Man franchise
• Granada Television: North West England franchise
• London Weekend Television (LWT): London weekend franchise
• Meridian Television: South and South East England franchise
• Tyne Tees Television: North East England franchise
• Yorkshire Television: Yorkshire/Lincolnshire franchise

Former Carlton-owned franchises:

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• Carlton: London weekday franchise
• Central Independent Television: Midlands franchise
• HTV: Wales and West of England franchise
• Westcountry Television: South West England franchise

As the holder of eleven out of fifteen ITV franchises ITV plc has a dominant influence on ITV1, but it does not actually operate the channel. However it wholly owns the following television channels:

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• ITV2
• ITV3
• ITV4 (to launch 1 November 2005, likely to replace Men & Motors)
• ITV News Channel (produced by ITN)
• Men & Motors (operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting)

ITV plc also owns 75% of the ITV national breakfast television franchise GMTV, as well as 45% of the Irish broadcaster TV3. The company owns a 40% stake in its news provider Independent Television News Limited.

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On 27 April 2005 ITV plc bought the SDN digital terrestrial franchise holder of multiplex A (currently transmitting ten channels) from its shareholders, S4C and UBM for ?134 million.

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ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was created through a share swop, Granada shareholders exchanged their shares for ITV shares at a rate of 1:1, Carlton shareholders at a rate of almost 2:1. Thus the former Granada shareholders own almost 2/3rds of the new company.

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ITV plc is divided into three divisions: Broadcast, which operates the TV networks, News, which runs the ITV regional franchises, and Granada which is the network production division.

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ITV plc also owns the largest cinema advertising business in the UK and Ireland, Carlton Screen Advertising.

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British: The word British has several different uses. See the article on Britain for more details on the development and use of the word Britain....

ITV1: ITV1 is a terrestrial, free-to-air television channel broadcast in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. The network is the oldest and most popular commercial television channel in the country....

British Broadcasting Corporation: REDIRECT BBC...